Teams Can’t Win Under Proposal

Mater Dei and Santa Margarita will not be allowed to compete for league titles in 11 varsity sports for two years, beginning in the fall of 1998, if the Southern Section’s executive council approves a revised proposal for league realignment at its Oct. 21 meeting. On Monday, the 18 principals involved gave unanimous approval to the proposal.

Marina, which was to move to the Pacific Coast League beginning with the 1998-99 school year, will remain in the Sunset League as part of the section’s proposed two-year “pilot program.”

The proposal is the result of a series of meetings between section officials and principals from the Sunset, South Coast and Pacific Coast leagues.

Tom Triggs, section president and principal at Buena Park High, was optimistic. “The pilot agreement reached among the principals will assure continuance of competition between all schools in the Orange County area,” he said, “and will contribute to a more harmonious relationship.”

That remains to be seen.

Mater Dei will move from the South Coast League to the Sunset League, and Santa Margarita moves from the Sea View to the South Coast League--both as part of last spring’s realignment proposal. Each school will compete against the teams in its new league but cannot be awarded league titles in football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ volleyball, boys’ and girls’ soccer, boys’ and girls’ water polo, baseball and softball.

The Monarchs and Eagles would have to qualify for playoffs in these sports as at-large teams.

In all other varsity team sports, and in lower-level competition in all sports, both schools can vie for league titles.

The original realignment proposal would have moved Marina, a Division I school, to the Pacific Coast League, whose members range from Division IV to Division VIII. Marina Principal Carol Osbrink said county principals, who approved the move by a 47-13 vote in February, had ignored state guidelines on competitive equity, enrollment and geography.

However, in early May, a section committee on realigning leagues voted, 8-0, to pass the original proposal on to the section’s executive council for final approval.

And the discussions began. At one point the Sunset League schools contemplated operating as independents themselves if Mater Dei came into their league in place of Marina.

Monday’s proposal seemed to mollify all parties involved, but many saw it as a temporary solution.

“Given the situation we are in now, there is a two-year window of opportunity to try and work out what our future releaguing situations will be,” Mater Dei Principal Pat Murphy said. “At the moment this is a reasonable compromise to give more time to reach a more finalized situation.”

Santa Margarita Athletic Director Richard Schaaf accepted Monday’s decision with reluctance.

“We enjoyed competing for league championships,” Schaaf said. “Our goal isn’t to win [section championships]. If it happens, great, but realistically you play for league titles first.”

Marina Athletic Director Larry Doyle said the proposal is “a compromise but not a solution.”

“Is it fair to them not to be able to compete for the league title?” he said. “Maybe not for them, but it is for everybody else. They play with a completely different deck of cards.”

Tom White, athletic director at Capistrano Valley, agreed.

‘I’ve always felt the public and private schools should compete in separate leagues,” he said. “This [proposal] does not solve the problem, but addresses the inequity in leaguing the public and private together.”

Murphy contends that new open enrollment policies have “brought more movement for public schools than ever before,” but said he could support a new catholic school league. “I would prefer a southern regional catholic schools league, with Orange County schools and the southernmost catholic schools from the Los Angeles area.”

Schaaf is optimistic about the two-year experiment.

“Our position is, see how this works, and hopefully in two years South Coast people will accept all of our teams,” he said.